picnics but no pictures

So I'm going home in exactly one week, 11 am on Friday, May 30. I'll get home around 5:30 pm that day. This month is the only one where I've spent the entire time in Paris, and I love it so much- climbed the towers of Notre Dame, hung out at Sacre Coeur, saw the view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, went out to clubs on the Champs Elysee and in the Marais, grabbed infinite cafe au laits at so many cafes (haven't been to the same one thrice!), crammed for my finals and wrote papers in French (so much easier now than six months ago), planned my Vietnam trip, and wrestled with the worst allergies I've ever had- it wouldn't be Europe if I wasn't sick at least once a month, would it?

As Lex and I were saying the other night, for all our complaining and emo-ness, we love Paris and we're really really going to miss it here. I'll miss the triangle shaped park at the end of Ile de la Cite and the quais along the Seine and picnics there; I'll miss the gaudy but glorious sparkling of the Eiffel Tower at night from the Champs de Mars; I'll miss the tiny chambre de bonne that became a room of my own in a big big city; I'll miss wandering and discovering ever more crooked streets that run by Notre Dame and Chatelet and the Pompidou; I'll miss the museums and plays and movies and language and people and all of it; I'll miss all of it.

May has been a month of picnics (see photo for typical example)- on the banks of the Seine, on the Pont des Arts (pedestrian bridge), on the Champs de Mars (in front of the Eiffel Tower), in the Luxembourg Gardens, everywhere. Jarod and Mike visited for four days or so and we did a Paris blitz, including another trip to Versailles. Last Saturday was the Europe-wide Night of the Museums with free museums and special exhibits from 6 pm-1 am. We went to Musee de Quai Branly (archaeology), Galliera (fashion), Rodin (Rodin), and Invalides (Napolean's tomb). The map is my trip with mom across all of France, from which I last blogged.

Sitting here with my plain yogurt with jam and a big mug of coffee after grabbing a cafe with Deanna after a night out at the Tower, it doesn't seem real that I'll be home next week, or that I'll be 20. I guess we'll see what happens. This post brought to you by the association for non sequiturs.